The following relates to the monitoring arts, classification arts, and related arts, and finds particular application in printing network monitoring arts, electronic network monitoring arts, device network monitoring arts, and so forth.
Monitoring of networks and systems is a common task. As an illustrative example, a network of printers may be monitored, with selected normal or abnormal events logged. The monitoring system is typically a computer (for example, a network server or the like) that occasionally polls a monitored device, network, or system in order to acquire information that is recorded in a monitoring log at the computer or at a storage device in operative communication with the computer. In addition to or instead of polling, the monitored device, network, or system may instead generate log information that is pushed to the monitoring system and recorded in the monitoring log. In either case, the monitoring log stores discrete observations that are time stamped with the acquisition time. The content of the observations may include, for example: sensor readings; operational events (for example, number of color print jobs executed in the case of a printing device); operational status (for example, “on” or “standby” in the case of a printing device); or so forth.
To be useful, the information of the monitoring log should be assessed at the monitoring system to ascertain whether the monitored device, network, or system is fully operational, or partially operational (for example, a multi-function printing device may be partially operational if the device operates in printing mode but not in optical scanning mode due to a malfunctioning optical scanner), or non-operational. A partial malfunction such as a broken optical scanner may be detected directly (for example, by a sensor that indicates the malfunction) or indirectly (for example, based on a sudden cessation of executed optical scanning jobs by the device). In a process control approach the monitoring log is assessed and the device, network, or system is adjusted automatically based on the assessment of the monitoring log.
Process control approaches are not effective if there is no way to automatically adjust the monitored device, network, or system. For example, a malfunctioning printing device generally cannot be automatically fixed, but rather a human repair person is dispatched to repair the printing device. Process control approaches may also be less effective if decisions to be made based on the monitoring log are not immediately known. For example, a decrease in the number of print jobs executed by a printing device may be an indication of a partial malfunction (such as, for example, the printing device producing printouts with extraneous lines, which may be acceptable for draft prints but not for final documents); on the other hand, the decrease in the number of print jobs executed may be due to other factors such as one or more users being out of the office.
In such cases, it could nonetheless still be advantageous to assess the monitoring log in order to make a decision as to whether action is needed, or whether a particular action should be taken. Such assessment can lead to more efficient deployment of human resources (for example, human repair persons or teams), or more accurate decisions of high consequence (for example, a decision to shut down a power generation plant of an electrical grid), or so forth.